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She picked up a stick and bent over, aimed at the cue ball and sunk one in a right hand pocket. “This could be fun.”
“You play?” he asked.
“I did in college. It was something to do but haven’t touched it in a long time. It was more a fun place to hang out at times.”
“The same,” he said.
“Your house is beautiful, but I expected no less,” she said. “And now you want to know more about my story.”
“I’d like that,” he said. “Whatever you want to tell me.”
Instead of going back into the living room, they went to the family room off the kitchen. Royce sat in a leather recliner, so she got on the couch facing him.
“I can’t say I’ve had it as difficult as you have with your parents. Mine just want to see me settled down. They tell me all the time I don’t compromise and that is why I’m single.”
“Compromise over what?” he asked.
“My time,” she said. “I don’t need to be around people. I don’t always even like to go out. I like my space and privacy. Not that I’m a super private person, but I don’t share often either. Maybe I just don’t like people that much.”
“I don’t believe you don’t like people. I think you are just no nonsense. You like what you like and don’t want to...compromise.”
“Exactly. But I know I have to. I’m friendly and professional in my job. I go out with friends, but I’m not sure I’m super close with all that many people. I think it’s because I’ve put my career first. It’s still a male-dominated field.”
Though Fierce was more progressive than other firms, she was still outnumbered by the males. And oftentimes had to fight harder to be heard and seen for her work and not being a woman.
“Plus there are men like Tony Waters,” he said.
“True,” she said. “I just push it off and ignore him and know outside of that job I won’t have to see or deal with him again.”
“It’s the best attitude to have,” he said.
“Back to me. I’ve dated, but it seems the men I’m with tend to want to do things that I’m not interested in. It’s not that I won’t give it a try. I do. Don’t think that.”
“You don’t come across as the type of woman that always has to have it her way.”
She laughed. “My mother might argue otherwise.”
“We’ve established that my mother is opinionated too.”
“My brother gets it too, but he’s divorced. He’s a pediatrician and a few years older than me. He’s got two kids, Tiffani is five and Tyler is three. He had them when he was doing his residency.”
“That had to be hard. Talk about having to put your career first,” he said.
“Which led to the end of his marriage. His ex wanted the life of the wife of a doctor but didn’t want to wait for kids. Dane wasn’t sure he wanted them so early, but Melanie said she had it covered. That she knew he had to focus on his career and it’d be fine.”
“But it wasn’t?” he asked.
“No. Dane really didn’t want a second child right away, but Melanie did. She realized it was harder than she thought even though her parents, my parents and I were helping too.”
“Sounds like she got more help than if it was only Dane,” he said.
“I thought so. It’s neither here nor there. Six months after Dane started to practice, Melanie said that it wasn’t what she’d thought it’d be and left. Dane was devastated and I saw that. He put everything he had into his career and marriage and put himself last. He’s a great laid-back guy and now he shares custody of the kids with Melanie. They’ve been making it work for the past year or so.”
“Good for him,” he said. “My parents weren’t civil after the divorce and my father doesn’t even want to talk about my mother. My mother only brings my father up to still trash him years later. It’s like she can’t let go.”
“Which makes no sense since she moved on,” she said.
“Exactly.”
